Hanging out at Google

Last week, while I was in San Francisco for Apple’s iPad launch, I took the opportunity of being in the vicinity to pay a visit to Google in nearby Mountain View, Calif. I’ve been writing about personal technology for the Mighty Houston Chronicle since 1993, but because I left the full-time tech beat in 2000, I never got the chance to see the Googleplex.

That visit resulted in today’s Computing column about Google’s Chrome browser. I spoke with some other folks as well, and those conversations will find their way into a post or column soon.

In all, I spent about four hours on the Google campus, and it’s a pretty impressive place. Its status as one of the best places to work is legendary, and from what I saw, it’s deserved.

Some random notes and photos from the visit:

• As I mentioned in the column, Google has a relaxed feel, but there’s also an air of intensity. I’ve been at plenty of high-tech headquarters, but this one felt more like a college campus. The Googleplex is actually made up of multiple buildings — most of them originally built and occupied by other companies — spread out over a wide area. There are communal bicycles for getting around. You just grab one, pedal to your destination, then leave it behind for the next person.

• While Google has a relaxed feel, there are still secrets to be kept and messages to convey, just as with any high-tech company. My hosts were very careful about the photos I could take, and they asked that I not directly quote Thunder Parley, my unofficial tour guide. Parley was an excellent guide, very funny and outgoing, full of interesting details about Google’s history. You might want to read this interview with him from the Los Angeles Times – he’s apparently known for his culinary expertise.

• And speaking of the food . . . it’s amazing, and it’s all free. There are numerous restaurants and cafeterias at the Googleplex, and employees don’t pay to eat there. They’re open long hours to accommodate the long and non-traditional hours common to software developers. I got to meet Preeti Mistry, the company’s executive chef, who last year wasa contestant on Bravo’s Top Chef reality show. She may not have won, but her Chinese food was some of the best I’ve ever had – certainly not the quality you’d expect from a company cafeteria!

• Google employees get great perks. For example, on this particular day, a hair-cutting service came to the campus for some ‘dos. As is the case with a lot of high-tech companies, snacks, coffee and other beverages are free. There’s a Google Shuttle that will get you to and from work if you don’t have a car. Can’t find a parking place if you do drive to work? The free valet parking service will take care of that for you. Oh, and if you need a car during the day but didn’t drive to work, that’s not a problem. Google has a fleet of Toyota Priuses that have been hacked to be all-electric. You can check one out and then drive to pick up your kid from day care, or make that doctor’s appointment, then return it back to campus. Don’t forget to to plug it back in at one of the garage charging stations.

• Oh, there is one case where you do have to pay for food. I was shown a vending machine that had been hacked by employees that charged prices based on the amount of transfats in them. One snack cost $4.55.

• Although it’s relatively young, Google’s proud of its history. In the lobby of one building is a a tall rack with about 20 hand-built computers. This is one of the original Google server racks, each with a row of 22-gigabyte hard drives and Pentium II processors.

The underside of each server is lined with corkboard – not exactly the most flame-retardant material.

• In one office, I saw a costume of the Street View man, the little icon you drag around on Google Maps to see what’s at that location. There are plenty of cars outfitted with the hardware used to gather Street View information. Like Google’s early servers, the Street View components are clearly hand-built. For example, the computer monitors inside the vehicles are mounted on two-by–fours.

• In the lobby of the main building that houses the executives office is a large wooden stairway. To the right of it is a giant whiteboard that, at one time, contained the Google "master plan". It’s since been erased and the board is covered with visitors’ graffiti. A lot of people have written "Hire me, Google!" Suspended over this is a replica of the SpaceShipOne, the first commercial craft to have made a suborbital space flight.

• Nearby is a fascinating booth called theLiquid Galaxy. It’s round, and the inside is lined with eight large plasma TV displays in portrait orientation. It’s used to display Google Earth in the round.

You can speak into a microphone, request an address and the displays will zoom there. It’s not a great place if you’re prone to motion sickness. It’s also very warm, as the plasma displays give off quite a bit of heat.

And why is it called Liquid Galaxy? It can show you Mars as well as the Earth.

• Originally, I was scheduled to interview some members of the Android team, but they had to cancel. However, I did get a lovely parting snapshot of the sculptures created each time a new release of the Android mobile operating system has been released. The updates are code-named based on pastries – Donut, Cupcake, Eclair.

This is by far one of the best articles I’ve ever read. Geez, it sounds like a blessing to work for Google! As I kept reading I kept saying, “Dang, it can’t get any better than this…oh wait…yes, it actually can!” Too bad I am all the way in Houston!

MargaretH is correct. With the perks like that you are expected to practically live there and work 24/7. Mind you where I work now sometimes that’s expected of me, but I don’t get nearly as nick perks.

You know, I don’t have a real elaborate criticism against Google but I don’t trust them as far as I could thrown them. They have their own spy satellites, and photograph my house w/o permission. Their search engine has gone from a useful tool to absolute crap in the last few years; just a new place for advertisers to mess with the data you’re looking for. I won’t use any of their products because I don’t trust their privacy policies in the least. They have too much money, and too much control over too many things. They are all about monetization and are not an altruistic entity by any means.

I’m sure their campus is swell. However, I’m far more interested in what they’re up to, rather than how great the free food is or bike availability (ever worked at a major film studio? Bikes are not uncommon on any massive work campuses). C’mon, Evil Dwight! The Empire has nice cutlery, too. Do your job.

I suppose I could have looked at Google from your point of view while I was visiting their campus, but the TSA wouldn’t let me take my tin-foil hat through security . . .

This is admittedly a “lite” piece. But one part of my job is to give people a feel for what it’s like in places they might not get the chance to visit, and that’s what this is. I could have gone in there and spent a lot of time asking questions about why they take pictures of people’s houses without permission, but I don’t think I would have been able to spend as much time as I did onsite.

By visiting there, I learned some things about the company’s mindset, which I might be able to use later in more critical pieces, should the need arise.

A lot of your criticism has validity, but also strikes me as a bit over the top. Yes Google is in a powerful position, and there’s the potential for abuse, but overall there’s not been much evidence of abuse. Probably the worst thing they’ve done is present a censored view of the Net to Chinese users, but at the moment, they’re the only major search company stepping away from that.

I don’t have a problem with Google making money from selling ads on its services because, well, that’s their business model. Yes, they’re all about monetization, but what successful business isn’t, at its core? You certainly have a right to not use a search engine that does that, but good luck finding one. What’s your alternative? Bing?

I’m not shy about criticizing any company when it’s deserved. But that was not what was called for on this particular visit.

Dwight.

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